What happens to patients when their GP retires or relocates?
Almost everyone agrees that having the same GP (general practitioner) over a long period of time is beneficial, but are you at risk if your GP relocates or retires?
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How mining operations without spoil heaps can become a reality
Mineral recovery by mining generates large volumes of surplus crushed rock that end up polluting natural environments. If we succeed in generating new knowledge, such surpluses can instead be used to manufacture concrete or improve agricultural soils.
Are you looking to test new AI tools? Make sure you avoid the ‘Tesla trap’
If only techno-optimists get to test AI tools, the results simply aren’t good enough. This is where Tesla made a big mistake – a lesson that the health sector will do well to learn.
Prepared for the holiday queues? Outdated regulations are preventing future improvements to ferry operations
Shortfalls in crew numbers in the Norwegian ferry system are resulting in numerous cancelled crossings. Onshore control centres and new safety technologies are just some of the initiatives that may enable operations with smaller crews.
Is the American Empire collapsing?
The United States remains a global power unparalleled in history. So what would it take for this situation to change? Four possible developments or events seem to be plausible candidates.
AI makes us more creative, but has disadvantages, students say
Youthful creativity is enhanced by artificial intelligence, but students are also asking valid, critical questions about how the technology affects education and learning.
Norway should lead the fight against plastic pollution
Norway’s coastline is littered with plastics from around the world. Plastic pollution is a global problem, but Norway can be a role model in putting an end to it.
Autonomous ships are on the horizon: Is AI ready to take command?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is well suited to observe and understand what is going on around a ship. However, before we can allow AI to make safety-critical decisions, we need to be aware of how certain the decisions are, as well as why AI makes them.
Artificial geysers can compensate for our mineral shortages
By imitating nature, it may be possible to recover seabed minerals by extracting hot water from the Earth’s crust. We can harvest green energy and be sensitive to the environment – all at the same time.
What should we be using our electricity for?
Norwegian politicians should not be sponsoring the race to expand the use of AI. The process is wasting too much energy.
Saying no to all gene technology is an ethical short-circuit
Conventional breeding techniques result in major and uncontrolled modifications to the genetic material of plants and animals. If arguments based on the ‘precautionary principle’ are used as blindly on this issue as in the gene technology debate, then we are condemning the world to starvation.
4D imaging of fluids in pores
A method based on CT (computed tomography) – a type of imaging that is widely used in hospitals – can help improve our understanding of CO2 storage, batteries, and processes in the body such as nutrient uptake.
Organs grown on microchips may offer a quantum leap for women’s health
Women’s bodies and their health in general have for too long been assigned low priority in the field of research. But an innovative and extraordinary technology may now offer us new treatments for conditions such as endometriosis.
We can’t allow Google to waste its surplus heat
The new Google data centre being built in Skien is in danger of wasting its surplus heat because Norway has no legislation that reduces this risk. We really need to address this issue!
Development projects should be assessed according to the cumulative impact they have on nature
Does it matter if a small area of rare wetland is lost if a lot more of the same area remains intact? In Norway, it is impossible to say, because no-one can show how many such wetlands are being destroyed elsewhere at the same time.
Precautionary fundamentalism is threatening Norwegian food production
If the Norwegian government rejects the majority opinion of the Gene Technology Committee, it will miss a long overdue opportunity to boost food safety, improve animal welfare and promote more eco-friendly pesticides.
Ability to identify bone fractures tells us something important about AI
One of Norway’s biggest achievements to date in the practical application of artificial intelligence is in identifying bone fractures. The secret of this success may be of benefit to many of our business leaders.
Why are we scrapping inexpensive and successful innovation funding initiatives?
The Norwegian government has decided to phase out the country’s Regional Research Funds. This is incomprehensible to those of us who have watched this initiative function successfully as a springboard for green innovation and transition in many small businesses.
European union’s ambitious climate goals are achievable – here’s how
Europe is well on its way to achieving its ambitious climate goals of a 55 per cent reduction in emissions in 2030 and “net zero” in 2050. But proposed policies must be implemented quickly and effectively.
Football may become the game where everyone loses
Match load in international football is becoming so high that it is threatening the health of our players. So much so, that the product itself may also be under threat.
Why we need biofuels
Necessary reductions in greenhouse gases will be achieved too late if we have to wait for all our aircraft, ships and trains to transition from fossil fuels. This is why we need biofuels – in spite of the criticisms levelled at their use in a recent article published on the opinions website ‘NRK Ytring’. Biofuels are no ‘climate change mitigation ruse’, as these authors would have you believe.
Norway needs to know much more before actually mining the deep sea
Norway’s law on mining seabed minerals is too unclear, the knowledge base too flimsy, and the Storting’s White Paper on seabed mining does not hold water.
New knowledge will offer cheaper and greener rail services
New lubricants, combined with new knowledge about how they should be applied to train wheels and rails, have the potential to reduce rail sector costs in Norway by hundreds of millions of kroner during the next decade.
Neighbours can save money by suspending car charging for 30 seconds
The electricity grid in Norway needs more balancing power. Neighbourhood communities can help by participating in a new market where intelligent consumer planning enables them to save money.